Chris Broussard Rankings going into next season

[HawkItus]

15. Atlanta Hawks

The More Things Change: The biggest change was the move from Mike Woodson, who improved the team's record in each of his six seasons, to longtime assistant coach Larry Drew as the head man. Drew was the players' choice, which could be a good or a bad thing. What we do know is that he will try to get more movement in the Hawks' offense, nixing Woodson's iso-exclusive philosophy. Besides that, the Hawks added a couple of nondescript bigs in Jason Collins and Josh Powell. They're hoping Jeff Teague can wrestle the reins away from veteran Mike Bibby, but that may be too big a jump for the second-year point guard. Rookie draft pick Jordan Crawford gained fame for dunking on LeBron James, but can he play?

The More They Stay the Same: For all the excitement over the return of Joe Johnson, fact is, the Hawks have hit their ceiling. They may win 50 games but they are a second-round playoff team at best, a step below the real EC contenders: Miami, Boston, Orlando and probably Chicago. Collins and Powell won't improve Atlanta's fate against real bigs like Dwight Howard. The Hawks will be good again, but no way they threaten to win the East.

Completely disagree.

[Guest]

Who actually pays attention to the ESPN personalities? They are all asshats.

[hazer]

Who actually pays attention to the ESPN personalities? They are all asshats.

New favorite word: asshat. Thank you :write a letter:

[jhay610]

Who actually pays attention to the ESPN personalities? They are all asshats.

Agree, but on this day, can you take an honest look at this team and disagree with what the man has said? Does the addition by subtraction of the Woodster make that much of a difference?

Edited August 25, 2010 by jhay610

[Guest]

Agree, but on this day, can you take an honest look at this team and disagree with what the man has said? Does the addition by subtraction of the Woodster make that much of a difference?

What he said about our team? Well he just spit out some truths. Yes we didn't add much, replaced Woody with Drew who was already with the team, and overpaid for Joe. No I cannot disagree with facts.

But he goes on to say we reached our ceiling. How is that determined?

And also, I fail to understand why people are already ranking teams when they haven't seen them play at all. Last year, most analysts claimed the Magic would be waaaaaaay better because they got Vince. What happened? Same regular season record, worse performance in the playoffs. A few years ago the Raptors got Jermaine O'Neal in a trade and everyone crowned them Atlantic champs and would meet the Cavs in the Eastern Finals. What happened? They sucked. How about when the 76ers got Elton Brand? Analysts said to watch out for the 76ers, they would make a lot of noise in the playoffs. Oops, he got injured and they were a better team without him.

I am just not into crowing teams to be better than us or even that a team will improve. Its foolish. Will the Heat challenge 72 wins? How about we actually SEE them play together. I know there isn't much to do right now, but people are going looney with these rankings and talking about teams. I am in no way convinced the Heat will be any good because they have failed to show me any proof of them being good. They also haven't shown me any proof of being crappy either, so I will wait until evidence before throwing out ridiculous statements about the team.

[tremor]

Have Hawks peaked? Maybe. They won't win East? I guess so. But they finished 6th (ex equo with two teams in Western Conf.) last season and qualified to second round of play offs along with other 7 teams in the league.

15th rank is actually huge drop and the only reason given is because Chicago and Milwaukee got better and assumption that West is always better than East. I would argue that the only two teams clearly better than Hawks in the Western Conference are Lakers and Mavericks. Suns (no Amare, aging Nash), Nuggets (aging Martin and Billups, chemistry issues) and Jazz (Boozer > Jefferson) actually got worse, Trail Blazers (health?), Thunder (growth from within) and Rockets (healthy Yao) might compete with Hawks record wise but I'd give our boys benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, even assuming that there are 6 teams better in the East and 5 in the West we're still at 12th not 15th spot in rather pessimistic prediction while 9th record seem to be more balanced prediction.

Edited August 26, 2010 by tremor

[macdaddy]

Have Hawks peaked? Maybe. They won't win East? I guess so. But they finished 6th (ex equo with two teams in Western Conf.) last season and qualified to second round of play offs along with other 7 teams in the league.

15th rank is actually huge drop and the only reason given is because Chicago and Milwaukee got better and assumption that West is always better than East. I would argue that the only two teams clearly better than Hawks in the Western Conference are Lakers and Mavericks. Suns (no Amare, aging Nash), Nuggets (aging Martin and Billups, chemistry issues) and Jazz (Boozer > Jefferson) actually got worse, Trail Blazers (health?), Thunder (growth from within) and Rockets (healthy Yao) might compete with Hawks record wise but I'd give our boys benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, even assuming that there are 6 teams better in the East and 5 in the West we're still at 12th not 15th spot in rather pessimistic prediction while 9th record seem to be more balanced prediction.

Agree. Why would the Hawks have peaked? Is Joe on the decline? No he's really in his prime. Have Smoove and Horford peaked. No they are obviously on the upswing of their nba careers. What All star level players had peaked 5 years or less into their careers?

I like being underestimated. We will see what LD is made of quickly because these guys will struggle early on. They've all been playing one way their whole careers. It won't be easy breaking some of those bad habits. But i expect us to come on strong later in the season which is how i'd rather have it anyway. LD just has to keep them believing.

[lunar]

this was an offseason buzz power rankings so they are obviously going to hype up

1) teams with superstar players

2) teams that made alot of signings

3) teams in big media markets (ESPN writer home towns)

it makes since that chris broussard (who prob hasn't done a positive hawks article since... ever, wouldn't think too highly of the hawks when we really haven't had a positive moment since March. wait for the season to start and live for the playoffs.